Wolves … Again

By Jake Cummins, Montana Farm Bureau Federation executive vice president
Friday, August 8, 2008 3:49 PM CDT

I had hoped I wouldn’t have to talk about wolves again but their delisting has put them back in the news and brought on a series of calls to me from reporters wanting to know “if Farm Bureau still hates wolves.” Most of the folks calling were still in school back when Farm Bureau went into federal court to try and stop wolf introduction, so their historical perspective is skewed by what they’ve heard from environmental groups like the Defenders of Wildlife, who get a lot of ink whenever the subject comes up, and have never appreciated Farm Bureau’s attempt to make them and the federal government accountable for their claims.

What’s often forgotten today is that we won our case in federal district court. The judge ruled the reintroduction of wolves was illegal (because they weren’t endangered to begin with) and that the transplanted wolves must be removed. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court, ruling that letter of the law is not important, only its intent.

During this period, I pointed out several times that the wolf plan was a joke because groups like the Defenders would never be satisfied with numbers the government used to denote recovery of the species and would sue whenever the government moved to delist.

In an op-ed dated Oct. 27, 1993, author Alston Chase cited Utah State University biologist Dr. Charles Kay, “Since packs contain, on average, 10 wolves of which only two - the alpha male and female - breed, this would imply that the animal would be deemed recovered after 100 wolves are established in each area. But to prevent harmful inbreeding and to protect against random environmental changes, most scientists believe that a minimum viable population is 1,500 individuals.

The recovery goals, he surmised, were political numbers without scientific basis fabricated to minimize opposition to wolf reintroduction. Yet when populations reach recovery goals and the government moves to delist, Kay observed, activists, rightly claiming 100 is not enough, will sue to keep them protected, and win. Wolf numbers will grow and grow and grow.”

Wolf proponents both in and out of government howled over such mean-spirited assertions. I was frequently pilloried as an ignorant hate mongerer when I raised the same concerns in speeches and op-eds through the nineties.

We have 1,500 wolves now and a pending lawsuit by the Defenders of Wildlife and a gaggle of other enviro groups claiming 1,500 just aren’t enough. Of course, wolves have been a great source of revenue for Defenders over the years and it looks like they will be again.

Montana Farm Bureau’s livestock producer members don’t hate wolves, and neither do I. Wolves are just another predator that have to be dealt with in a responsible and cost-effective way. The thing that sticks in my craw is the stereotyping by the media of who we are and what we do and the hypocrisy of the environmental movement as they recycle their tired predictions of eminent wolf slaughter by enraged cowboys shooting every furry critter that moves.

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